During a recent interview with Love Wrestling, Shaul Guerrero commented on being told to “earn” her last name in WWE NXT, and more. You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
On deciding to return to wrestling: Honestly, I appreciate that, because that is a testament to the good training I had with WWE with how they trained me to announce and all of the love and guidance I’ve had with Lucha Underground, AEW, you know what I mean, and just amazing people at W.O.W, as well. Honestly, though, whenever you’re in the wrestling environment, at least I can say this for me, watching the girls train – there’s always like a women’s training session whenever you’re at a show – and yeah, the bug bit me. I just was like, ‘I’m ready to get back in the ring,’ and then my wheels start turning about gear and like, ‘oh, I could have a storyline with this person, and we could do this. Oh, this would be really cool, or I wish we would tighten this up,’ or whatever. I’m like, ‘just get in there and do it yourself. You know what I mean? If you want something done, do it yourself!”
On the difference between AEW and WWE: “No, for sure. Well, it was very different just because when I was walking in, not only was I there with my mother, so like that was obviously very cool, it was like running into old friends. I’ve trained with a lot of people there back in my FCW days and back when I was at NXT. It’s true what everybody says. The environment in the back is a lot more relaxed. There’s a lot less pin needles to be worried about. I mean, there’s like an overwhelming amount of respect for everybody. Everybody’s just there to put on a good show and have fun. I think that fun was everywhere when I was backstage. I was so fortunate to be able to work with Justin Roberts and announce so many amazing women. Honestly, just between that and watching the training session, watching Dustin Rhodes train everybody, and just – I don’t know, there’s just so many amazing things. And I do believe I was in a different time when I was with WWE, as far as when we’re talking about comparing. I was in the era where like, you know, we were pre-women’s revolution and evolution and everything like that. And so, you know, we had 10 minutes or a bikini contest, or there was just – I think body positivity has increased lately, as well. So, not that anyone ever told me anything specifically, but there was just kind of an air at that time where it was just like, you’ve got to look a certain way and a lot of pressure that I couldn’t really control as far as the family stuff. It was just all the time because that was my father’s alma mater, and my mom is there, and my cousin was employed at that time. So there was a lot of pressure. And so I think all of that combined before I got mature, you know, it was not the best environment for me. So that was kind of the comparison. Happy for both experiences, though.”
On thinking she would be wrestling as Guerrero and the NXT name change: “Totally! Honestly, when I was there, I was under the impression that I would be wrestling under Guerrero. Because like, I mean, let’s be real. That’s what got me the opportunity. But, I was told I had to earn my last name. And so I was like, holy shit!’ Honestly, it’s like a layered – there’s a lot of layers to how I was feeling, because I was like, you know, I’m in WWE! I was like, ‘you know what, just shut up and do whatever they want. Do whatever they want, you know what I mean? And then, there was also a part of me that understood that’s a very old school mentality. You know what I mean? Where it’s ‘you’ve got to earn the name, you’ve got to earn the name.’ I grew up with that mentality, whether it was doing my chores, my grades in school, or now wrestling, so yeah, I guess I always was understanding of that. And then, on a personal note, me taking it personally, I was like, I already earned the name Guerrero when I went through all that shit with my dad and our family. I was like, I am a motherf*cking Guerrero!”
